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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million british pounds" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Steve Jepson" (may be fake)
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 01:40:46 -0800
Subject: From the staff of HSBC department.
I am Steve mills Jepson a senior staff of HSBC In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of £30.5million British Pounds Sterling (thirty million five hundred thousand British Pounds) in an account that Belongs to one of our foreign customers Late Mr. Morris Thompson an American who unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31 2000,including his wife and only Daughter.
You can read more about the crash on visiting this site http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/
and
http://www.nativefederation.org/history/people/mThompson.html
I will solicit your acceptance of this business proposal for our own benefit despite that i have never see you or did not know you, but trust is built in one day. I will wait for your urgent acceptance without reservation, Note that all formation to disburse the fund is confidential .
Regards
Jepson.
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Anti-fraud resources:
